Monday, February 25, 2019

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- David Roberts sets out the big picture surrounding the Green New Deal, as essentially nobody other than the activists supporting it has made any effort to deal with the reality of impending climate breakdown:

(T)hat’s the context here: a world tipping over into
catastrophe, a political system under siege by reactionary plutocrats, a
rare wave of well-organized grassroots enthusiasm, and a guiding
document that does nothing but articulate goals that any
climate-informed progressive ought to share.

Given all that, for those who acknowledge the importance
of decarbonizing the economy and recognize how cosmically difficult it
is going to be, maybe nitpicking and scolding isn’t the way to go. Maybe
the moment calls for a constructive and additive spirit.

The GND remains a statement of aspirations. All the
concrete work of policymaking lies ahead. There will be room for carbon
prices and R&D spending and performance standards and housing
density and all the rest of the vast menu of options for reducing
emissions. None of those policy debates have been preempted or silenced.

And yes, there are any number of ways it could go off the
rails, politically or substantively. Everyone is free, nay, encouraged
to use their critical judgment.

But the circumstances we find ourselves in are
extraordinary and desperate. Above all, they call upon all of us to put
aside our egos and our personal brands and strive for solidarity, to
build the biggest and most powerful social force possible behind the
only kind of rapid transition that can hope to inspire other countries
and forestall the worst of climate change.

- Adam Johnson calls out the lack of any scrutiny of an obvious scheme by the same people who have pushed wars and humanitarian atrocities on the U.S.' behalf for three decades to continue that pattern in Venezuela. And Kevin Tillman argues against yet another illegal U.S. invasion.

- Steve May comments on the willingness of Andrew Scheer and the Cons to join forces with avowed racists. labour

- Finally, Derek Thompson writes about the obsession with "workism" that pushes workers to accept perpetually deteriorating job conditions and lives based on the social expectation they'll see work as its own reward.